As is known to those skilled in the art, young children often soil themselves, their clothing, and their immediate surroundings during a meal creating clothing stains that are not easily removed. Such problems have typically been mitigated by the use of bibs to cover the area of the torso underneath the mouth of the child. Bibs are well known in the art.
In the home, supervising adults often utilize multi-use fabric or plastic/vinyl bibs that collect misdirected or rejected foodstuffs during mealtime. The soiled bib can then be laundered and reused at the next meal. In a public setting, such as in restaurants, disposable bibs are provided for use by patrons during their visit.
Disposable bibs are well known in the art. Disposable bibs are designed to be worn once and discarded. Generally, a bib includes a functional portion for at least partially covering and protecting a wearer's garments and a fastening portion for fastening the bib to the wearer. Most typically, the fastening portion includes tie cords, hook and loop fasteners, buttons, leads with clips on each end, adhesive-backed straps or tabs, hook and eye or other adhesive configuration. Typical disposable bibs are made of a plastic or paper material and often include a depiction of a red lobster, animal or cartoon character imprinted thereon.
A number of adhesive disposable bibs are also known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,776 to Gruenwald discloses a bib using adhesive straps to secure the bib to the wearer's shoulders. U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,321 to Johnson discloses a disposable bib having a food catching pocket held open by adhesive tabs secured to a supporting surface such as a table and an adhesive tab to secure the bib's neck closure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,844 to Kehl discloses a disposable bib for use by dental patients having a strip of pressure sensitive adhesive across the top edge of the back of the bib. U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,048 to Campbell discloses a self-adhesive napkin having adhesive material located along at least the top edge thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 6,256,788 to Loewer discloses a bib of absorbent material having a neck cut-out in the upper end and a pressure sensitive adhesive disposed over substantially the entire back surface of the bib except for an un-coated border surrounding the neck cut-out. In another embodiment of Loewer, the pressure sensitive adhesive is applied in strips running from top to bottom near the sides of the back side of the bib. U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,603 to Horton et al. discloses a placemat having intergrated adhesive stickers or labels used as decorations for the placemat.